Expert Sleepers

All-EMS VCS3 track using Silent Way

Silent Way is a freakin' miracle. Thanks to Expert Sleepers, even something as cantankerous as my old EMS VCS3 can be called into duty for something more than simulating cosmic flatulence.

Eight tracks of nuthin' but VCS3 (and a delay), recorded in Logic, using the Silent Way Voice Controller plug-in to keep the old feller in tune. Sure, there are some cosmic flatulence patches, but they give way to Berlin-school sequencery and an utterly masturbatory lead (forgive the indulgence. It's not every day that I can play the thing in perfect tune for this long without the oscillators getting into an argument with one another!)

It's an improv exercise, but if you like old Mark Shreeve or Wavestar, you might find it entertaining. I am just blown away by the fact that Silent Way can tame the old thing.

Welcome!

"Instruments that sound good inspire better music, and it's a struggle to make music with bad-sounding instruments, irrespective of how talented you might be. Software instruments are no different: although they are usually discussed and sold in terms of their 'features' what really makes you return to an instrument repeatedly is the much more elusive factor of inspirational sound quality.

"I don't know enough about programming to understand why some software tools fascinate you while others make you want to get another job, but I do know that when I use anything by ES I get excited by what I'm hearing. These tools have the sonic richness of great analogue instruments - with the features of innovative digital ones."